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Aion; Well, done, well done.
At first glance, Aion looked like every other MMORPG and I decided, after hearing later comments about others stellar takes on this game, I had to give it a chance. This is coming from EQ, AC, WoW, DDO, Vanguard, PotBS, AoC, Tabula Rasa, WAR, etc.
Firstly, the character customization was terrific and I really felt I could create an separate individual character from all others. The variety of character types was statis quo, but as I found out as I leveled through 20, the diversity and journey showed the games departure from previous norms.
Then I landed in the world. My god, the modified Crytec technology perhaps? But this world is alive and actually beautiful; I do not feel as though I stepped into a cartoon, but a virtual world.
The story behind the current state of the world of Aion seems fascinating and it appears as though the game continues its lore through numerous well-written quests and several scripted cinematic missions as you progress.
Character animation overall is extremely well done, and my character looked and felt like it was actually alive rather than a pixilated toon.
What a breathtaking visual experience.
From my experience, Aion doesn’t appear to be as much a forgiving pve grind or nearly as statically a pve-centric mmorpg as WoW was with it’s afterthought of bolt-on arenas and battlegrounds. If the extension of my experience is truly more dynamic than the static and redundant nature of WAR’s implementation of pve/pvp mixture, then the entertainment value will be great.
The combat in Aion is not nearly as complex as what I experienced in AoC, but isn’t as dumbed-down as what I experienced in WoW. Could it be a nice blend of the 2; an evolution of mmorpg combat? Maybe.
Anyone who is familiar with combat-enriched mmos will appreciate the clever style of the Aion combat system. Combos and more combos, and they aren’t linear. The chains seem to branch where you can specialize how you combat based on varying situations, but you have to time them properly or else it seems you lose it.
Flight is a bonus. Mounts have always been a great additive with any mmo I’ve played, but at first,my reaction was wings? Comon. But then to see and experience how their implemented and that there are rightly so restrictions to their use and value to using them tactfully, is a brilliant twist on mmorpg game-play.
The economic and merchandising system is a nice and very familiar means, but the gathering and crafting system is for true crafters; it takes time, effort, and dedication to be a brilliant crafter, it seems, in this game. But the foragers or gatherers will have a nice revenue stream for their contribution to the market it seems. So everyone can be involved.
In short, a crisp, new, absolutely beautiful, and dynamic style of play that transcends some mmorpgs before it, and certainly worth the entertainment value, even if played for 6months, is my take on the situation.
Comments
Agree with your assesment, this is the best MMO ever to be released. Visually and stability wise it transcends every other MMO on the market.
Aion's real open world PvP has meaning, it's not some shoe box arena style paper scissors pvp (ala WoW). Also you don't grind/afk the same BG for no reason, Aion HAS open world PvP which has real meaning from level 20. Cant wait for the realese!
GW2 the future of MMO gaming
Very well written, and trolls, before you attack him saying he is wrong, remember it is his opinion and you will also be using an opinion.
Also awaiting release and further betas.
Awsome game, not far enough to really give it a final score but if you look at the most recent update notes from Korea(1.5 the version na will be getting at na live release. The third major update since Korean release closed beta is based off 1.0) you start getting the feeling that this will be the most content rich release we've had well... ever. Even bigger than LoTRO. It is different and does cater to different taste than the formentioned mmo. I'm talking overall not in just one area as well aka pvp is integral to the game. The way they're intertwining the both pve and pvp is really exciting.
With as much respect to the OP as possible, this is simply not that well written. You agree with him; so it is (to you!) a well written and well thought out post.
EricDanie wrote: Very well written, and trolls, before you attack him saying he is wrong, remember it is his opinion and you will also be using an opinion.
Also awaiting release and further betas.
I always thought forum troll means someone that stays long hours in forums and you Eric have 5 stars(elite) so who you calling troll? Also I did make a poll saying that Aion didnt meat my expectations and the fanboys jumped like crows on me...wasnt that my opinion too??? I really hate the fan boys in this forum they dont allow anyone to say his honest opinion, they just wear the fanglasses and everything is the shape of their favorite game.
Well you got one thing wrong here, they don't have flight, they have something called glide. You also forgot to mention you end up walking everywhere because there are no mounts and glide is very limited. Nice trying to sugarcoat a design mistake.
The term troll has nothing to do with how many posts you have or how long you have been on the forum. It mainly refers to someone who argues for the sake of causing drama. Like going to a forum dedicated to Aion for the sole purpose and telling everyone how much it sucks. A normal person would write the game off and not give it a second thought. Trolls, however, feel the need to express their displeasure with people they know will disagree with them.
It seems like its becoming popular to defend MMO's?
However as soon as I can get a copy of this game I will be.
Actually there is flight. Just there are areas you can't fly in. In those zones you can glide to increase speed and if done correctly can be used to run from battle or travel fairly long distances.
Just so others who have not tried out the game, like yourself clearly...
There is flight in this game but only in certain areas.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=troll I don't see "troll is someone that is active in forums", my concept of trolls are those that talk bad about a game without giving any reasonable explanation, and negative opinions doesn't mean talking bad. You may dislike the game graphical art style, but saying it's crappy, undetailed and outdated would be trolling, especially since we're talking about art. Saying Aion is a "trash wow clone copy aion" like you did in these forums also goes into my concept of being a troll.
Actually there is flight. Just there are areas you can't fly in. In those zones you can glide to increase speed and if done correctly can be used to run from battle or travel fairly long distances.
This part is terrain dependent of course. Now, hold that thought and think about the PvP aspects of the game in these areas. What do you end up with? A design decision that actually allows terrain to play an important role when choosing fallback or attack positions without resorting to arbitrary uphill/downhill attack modifiers.
I would rather be able to fly everywhere, but its a design decision. Not a design mistake
You can glide anywhere, even in areas that you can't fly in. And if you time it right, you can glide for a pretty long time. How is it limited? It recharges very quickly. And also, I didn't walk everywhere - that's what the flight transporters are for.
Of course there is flying. Not only that but there are resources floating around way up in the sky that you need if you're a crafter, so you HAVE to fly to get them.
Aion has flight, which is limited to certain areas and has time limitations, there's no sugarcoating neither a mistake in there, even the devs never said Aion would allow full flight as described here it is limited on "your own lands", so there was no fake advertising in there, so far I didn't see Aion promissing what they can't give.
http://www.aiononline.com/us/game_guide/what_is_aion/aerial_combat.html
You can glide anywhere as long as its in a down-side path, you can actually glide for long distances with that.
Aion may not feature mounts, but they feature something similar mounts like this item sold by NPCs http://www.aionarmory.com/item.aspx?id=164000045 , one of the many Aion items that allow you to transform into monsters or animals, there are quests you will be disguised as a monster to infiltrate and scout an enemy monster outpost.
This one transforms you into a Karnif for 10 minutes, giving you a 30% speed movement, for a fairly cheap price, while in that form you can't use skills (you can deactivate it at anytime though).
Also there are flight transporters and teleporters, plus other means of traveling like the return skill and town X return scrolls, so you won't actually be "walking everywhere".
Ok, All I have seen mentioned is that there is forced pvp in the game. Now, with that said, could someone tell us what is involved in pvp fighting? Is it full loot when you die? lose items? etc? When you are killed what happens? do you have to recover your body/items or do you respawn with them (PVP/PVE)
You do not lose any equipment or items when you die.
When you die, you will lose an amount of Abyss Points proportional to level difference and AP difference between you and your killer (which you gain when you kill someone in your level range) and you respawn in the Obelisk you saved your bind point. There is no running back to your body.
Abyss Points are what determine your rank, and position in the ranking, also they are a currency that allows you to buy some stuff, including the best PvP-specialized gear (for PvE it is not the best equipment) avaiable. Also guild rankings are determined by how much Abyss Points their members have.
yea I agree with the OP, well done. The only problem; I want to play more and I can't.. grrr
You haven't seen the true power of Aion till you get to the 3rd,4th, 5th zones + Abyss. Aion's world visuals are formatted much like L2s, however THEY ARE WAY FRICKING BIGGER!! They had a Canyon area in L2 launch where all of the ants were. You could walk down and across this canyon area in about 60 seconds. It seemed big for an MMO back then, however the Canyon I saw in Aion was GIGANTIC. Plus it was so high up, the NPCs looked like tiny ants down below. Also the canyon was like one of 10 other massive areas in the 3rd zone. I am extremely impressed.
I thought this game was going to be a Korean WoW, but it's not. It's like L2 with a mega modern upgrade, running on a bad ass graphics engine.
100% open PVP in L2 got boring at times. I think this RvR approach will be MUCH more fun.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=troll I don't see "troll is someone that is active in forums", my concept of trolls are those that talk bad about a game without giving any reasonable explanation, and negative opinions doesn't mean talking bad. You may dislike the game graphical art style, but saying it's crappy, undetailed and outdated would be trolling, especially since we're talking about art. Saying Aion is a "trash wow clone copy aion" like you did in these forums also goes into my concept of being a troll.
Well I think you are the troll then cause you talking shit to anyone who don't like aion and tells his honest opinion. If you don't want your opinion argued then don't argue the opinion of other people. You said "My concept of troll are those that talk bad about a game without giving any reasonable explaination....ok here we go: 1st of all I played chinese beta and will say this again I got so amazed at character creation, but as soon as i started the game I saw the toon dropped in the game world no story no cutsceene nothing just the wow questionmarks about hot to move and do things so this is 1st letdown, when you run you can't move camera around the whole toon turns unless u click to run is the 2nd letdown, in deep water you don't swim but you walk inside water like you weight 10000lbs is the 3rd letdown, 4th is beside the shiny grafix the trees, farms enviroment in general feels same as in the badshape wow(remember im not a wow fan im ffxi fan) 5th only 1 race after you chose side thats it 1 race it feels like runes of magic, 6th button smash which feeled like lotro and the reason i quit lotro was the button smash you hit same 1 then 2 then 3 then 4 and repeat, 7th toons set shops and create lag in major areas with the stupid emotes which these kinda shops you find on all f2p games instead of bazaar in ffxi which at anytime wherever you are people can see what you sell you don't have to stay still, 8th after complited few quests(i reached level 7) it became so repeat, repeat repeat i got bored and uninstalled the shiny grafix game that i was waiting for 2 years googleing it for 2 straight years "aion online" I never saw the climbing and other cool shit they showed on 1st trailer i ever saw. IMO this game has copied from many mmos but still has very low content and small maps, remember 1 race only ...how many wow has 10??? how many ffxi has 20??? but this is it I'll never bother to say anything about aion again in these forums or any other forum I'm actually too busy reading a lot about ffxiv
good luck guys in aion.
yep this game is very nice. it has good gfx and game play.
new class at lvl 10 and wings how sweet is that .
So far, I'm very impressed with Aion. As has been mentioned here already, the graphics are stunning and the performance puts EVERY other mmo on the market to shame. Even on max settings with 8x AA enabled and in stereo 3d mode (3d Vision) there is zero lag and zero stuttering and I get a constant 60fps+ (granted, I have a high-end gaming rig, but even so no other mmo currently out there can touch it performance-wise). If nothing else, the devs are to be commended for an exceptionally well-written program.
All that remains to be seen for me is how the pve endgame content & pvp are. If they live up to the hype, there's a good chance Aion could be my new full-time mmo (although I won't make that call until it passes the "30 days" test). After just one weekend in the beta, I'm finding myself wishing I was still playing Aion now that I'm back in my usual game(s).
The graphics arnt STUNNING, they are better/different than some but they are no where near as good as anything thats running a dx10 engine.
The only real reason it runs so well is that its old tech, and that perfprmance that you claim wasnt upto it in beta 3, every one that i was playing with over 30 ppl had BAD lag and lots of rubber banding all weekend.
Did you even played the Beta?
This statement completely baffles me: I've played both games to end-game and I've found them to be somewhat different, but hardly in terms of complexity.
AoC involved CC-timing a la WoW, but with added jousting. The PvP at the time, however, was not developed to the point where matches lasted longer than 10 seconds; in most cases it was either do, or die.
WoW on the other hand, through millions of dollars and player feedback, eventually made the matches last somewhat longer (although this has changed somewhat with the WoTLK expansion..).
Both games have around the same number of skills favoring WoW; the biggest difference in complexity would be the shield system, directional tap system, block/parry system and of course combos.
The shield system is really not that complex, however, since it is nearly impossible to ascertain what an enemy players combo will be your only logical choice is to place your shields in a direction where their hardest hitting combo is and/or distribute them among two places if they have two combos that hit there. Proactive shielding is definitely infesaible in real PvP, since the combo damage is calculated WAY before the animation hits (which is why fatality cut scenes occur before the actual move is displayed).
Double tapping is nice, but it still doesn't add too much. Block/parry was at first trivialized to the point where it was neigh useless for classes, then made a bit too viable again, but in any case all it involves is holding down a button when you anticipate a combo. I think Block/parry was the biggest thing separating AoC from WoW, since a very talented individual could backstep and/or parry to ruin another person's day. It used to drain a percentage of stamina, making it really decisive when and where to use it (especially for classes that relied on stamina for damage) ; now I've heard that the drainage has been decreased, so casters are abusing it.
I had played a HoX to 80 in AoC back when it released in three months and participated in a few large-scale battles, however, I also did a lot of dueling in Kesh/Noble District to the point where I could beat almost anybody else on the server 1v1 without much difficulty (this was also due to class imbalance however), so I have a good idea of what AoC PvP is like.
In WoW, I played arena (of course... what WoW player hasn't?) and did alright (2000 range, which meant somewhere around 80th percentile or so on my battlegroup) and really didn't notice a huge disparity in complexity when it came to WoW's combat vs. AoC's for the aforementioned reasons: CC had to be timed, you had to be able to use a mouse, you had to anticipate the opponent's strategy, you had to be able to kite etc.
So... I'm not quite sure where you get that WoW's combat was so dumbed down compared to AoC's, except for perhaps in the early levels of the games when AoC's combat starts out with nearly all of it's complexity's vs. WoW's, which progresses from stone-age button mashing to nearly forced macroing/timing UI's at 80 competitive PvP (or 70, if you didn't play past WoTLK ) .
TLDR: WoW had more CC and skills to macro/time compated to AoC, however, AoC had blocking, a shield system and double tapping. Although the latter features did add a bit more complexity, they were, in practice, not quite as complex as they might have seem to been. In my opinion, they were of nearly equal complexity.
My question to you: What EXACTLY makes AION's combat more complex than that of WoW ?
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
Sure no flight >.< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiVRze43lGw
Then why do I see people flying in this vid?
And why was I able to fly in the beta?
There will be areas where you can't fly, but you can glide there, and I glide A LOT in those areas, it takes a bit of practise but when you get the hang of it you will be using it a lot.
nom nom nom